Correlation between prognosis of pediatric medulloblastoma and its relevant clinical factors

Abstract

Objective To analyze the correlation between the prognosis of pediatric medulloblastoma (MB) and its relevant clinical factors. Methods Forty-seven children with MB,admitted to our hospital from November 2001 to July 2010, were chosen;a retrospective analysis, using Kaplan-Meier survival tested by log-rank and Cox proportional hazards regression model, was performed to identify the correlation between the prognosis of pediatric MB and relevant clinical factors which included age, gender, course of disease, tumor location, pathological subtype, preoperative metastasis,extent of tumor resection, interval between surgery and radiation, brainstem invasion and chemotherapy.Results The 2-year survival rate of these patients was 91.4%, and 5-year survival rate 50%.Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that patients with total or subtotal tumor resection had a significantly higher survival rate than those with partial resection (P 42 d (P<0.05). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis indicated that preoperative metastasis (RR, 6.808;95%CI, 1.844 to 25.113;P<0.05) and interval between surgery and radiation (RR, 5.642;95% CI, 2.042 to 15.587;P<0.05) were the influencing factors for prognosis of MB. Patients without preoperative metastasis and with interval between surgery and radiation ≤42 d enjoyed good prognosis results. Conclusion Both preoperative metastasis and interval between surgery and radiation are independent factors for prognosis of pediatric MB. Key words: Medulloblastoma; Child; Therapy; Prognosis